Ticket because, quote, the alternative is simply untenable. And remember the american soldier who dashed over the dmz into north korea . What we are learning about a plea deal for travis king, and history will have to wait at least one more day. The setback for spacex ahead of a launch that would send astronauts on the farthest mission from earth in five decades. We are live on floridas space coast with an update. Msnbc reporters have the latest development. We start with the fight over georgias election rules. Msnbc correspondent lisa rubin is with me. Lisa, explain what this is all about and how it could complicate things in november. Chris, this is a lawsuit against the Georgia State Election Board. Its a fivemember board that makes rules essentially for the conduct and administration of elections in georgia. The suit is over two rules in particular that affect novembers elections, both of which allow for local county election Board Members to do a reasonable inquiry on one hand or even demand all electionrelated documentation prior to certifying local election results. The reason that this could be chaos going into novembers election is because if local county Board Members do these things a reasonable inquiry demanding documentation and delay the certification of their own countys results that could have reverberations for the submission of the entire states results and it could prevent raffensperger from certifying results or passing them on to brian kent. You can see here how even decisions made by a Single Person in a county could have reverberations across the state and potentially for the nation and thats why the Democratic Party of georgia, the dnc and others have sued the Georgia State Election Board for this. More to come. Lisa rubin, thank you for that. . Staffers who worked for the three republican nominees are going all in for Kamala Harris. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell is reporting from the white house. What are they saying, kelly . Well, this is not about ideological agreement. Its about a focus on institutions and their belief that it is important to have protections around those institutions and a belief in them for governing. So this does include bush, romney, Mccain Alumni and also george h. W. Bush alumni. So it extends to four different groups and what they talk about is a concern for how donald trump could be a threat to the country, and they many of them gathered last time that he was on the ballot to try to prevent his election and now they are doing so again. Part of what they have to say is this. They say that, of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President harris and governor walz, that is to be expected. The alternative is simply untenable. They write another four years of Donald Trumps chaotic leadership this time advancing the dangerous goals of project 2025 will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions. Of course, project 2025 is the set of ideas that donald trump at times gives himself some distance from, but alumni of donald trump have put together talking about how they would put changes throughout government, and those institutions that include things like people of varying political views who are Civil Servants working in government, continuity of government. So each though they would view the world differently on a lot of International Issues and even how the role of government in terms of taxation or various policies, they might not agree with Kamala Harris or governor walz, thats whats bringing this group together making it notable. They also point out that when you look at the last elections that they believe it is a small band of republicans who are more moderate who might be inclined to go back to their own party and, in this case, vote for donald trump and that could be enough to make the difference, and so they are urging those fellow republicans to consider the bigger implications and to consider voting for Kamala Harris and tim walz instead of donald trump, to resist that impulse to return to party. Chris . Kelly odonnell, thank you. Now to the plea deal thats in place for the u. S. Soldier who made International Headlines for running into north korea. I want to bring in nbcs Courtney Kube from the pentagon. Sentencing set for september 20th. What can we expect . Thats right, chris, In Fort Bliss in texas. This is for army private travis king. Last summer he made headlines when he boarded a tour bus, went to the demilitarized zone, the dmz, the board are between North And South Korea and as part of a tour group he fled into north korea into the arms of north korean authorities who detained him. That started off a weeks long process, a diplomatic process that ultimately in september led to swiss officials going to north korea, taking him across the border into china where he was transferred into u. S. Diplomatic official hands. Since then he has been charged with 14 different counts in the military court. One of those is desertion, also conduct unbecoming and he also is charged with assault as part of a previous incident that had occurred while he was there stationed in south korea. We learned yesterday from his attorney Frank Rosenblatt that, in fact, he will plead guilty to five of those charges, but not all 14. Key though, chris, he will plead guilty to the desertion charge. His attorney Frank Rosenblatt said u. S. Private travis king will take responsibility for his conduct and enter a guilty plea. He was charged by the army with 14 offenses under the uniform code of military justice, he will plead guilty to five of those including desertion and three count of disobeying an officer. As he says in the statement the army will dismiss those additional charges. He will appear in a Court At Fort Bliss september 20th. We will hopefully hear more about the plea deal. These charges do come with the potential for a jail sentence, but we dont know all of the details of the plea deal and exactly what we should expect here, chris. Courtney kube, thank you. Lets go to florida now because the Spacex Mission set to face history with the firstever space walk has been pushed into tomorrow after a helium leak. Nbcs marisa parra is reporting from floridas space coast. Tell us about it, what happened and what are the chances that they get going tomorrow . Hey, chris. Weather is always a factor and what were waiting to see and what is the latest. So far things are looking good for tomorrow morning and theyre looking at the same time that they were looking for at this morning, 3 38 in the morning. If youre a space nerd like me, it will be an early wakeup call. The polaris dawn and this is the First Mission scheduled and there are a couple of historic things that were expecting to see here. First, humans will reach the highest orbit in over 50 years since humans were last on the moon with apollo 17. Theyll reach orbit of 870 miles above earth and for perspective because were throwing out numbers that is three times the equivalent of the Space Station and thats driving from mami to washington, d. C. Were expecting two days after ward of space walk and you mentioned the first commercial allcivilian space walk and what were expecting is all those astronauts will be exposed to the vacuum of space as two of those astronauts performed this space walk, and the reason this is significant is those space suits that youre seeing on the screen, stateoftheart brand new, never tested in space before will act as their own individual spaceship. You might be wondering the risks involved. This is an ambitious and theyre exposed to orbital debris and it can move sometimes at four miles per second and a higher level of radiation than typically on the Space Station. Why do something ambitious . The largest goal of spacex is to send humans to mars. So you need people like these brave souls here willing to test things out, including the space suits and the commander has said that is something that is so exciting to him. All of them have been training for years for this, chris. Were waiting to find out if well watch this launch tomorrow and well be on the space coast of florida to tell you about it tomorrow. Marisa parra, im more than a little bit jealous. Have a great time. I hope it gets off tomorrow. Coming up in 90 seconds, Chicken Noises and a new button. The new attacks and debate preps under way ahead of the trumpharris showdown. D of the trumpharris showdown. A chewy pharmacy order is on the way for summit, who loves fresh air. Like, loves fresh air. But fresh air is full of stuff. Fleas. Ticks. Allergens. So her parents use chewy for all her prescriptions. Fast Delivery means they never miss a dose. And great prices mean more funds. For more fun. For quality meds and great prices. For life with pets, theres chewy. Two weeks to go before the momentous debate between Kamala Harris and donald trump, and theres still no agreement on the rules. Trump continues to plant seeds of doubt, questioning whether it can be fair and while negotiations with abc, the debate hosts continue, both campaigns are in attack mode, trolling the other side. Check out this new Harris Campaigns social media video. Why not debate her . [ Chicken Clucking ] right now i say why should i do a debate . I am leading in the polls and Everybody Knows her and Everybody Knows me. Yes, thats clucking. Trump and his allies meantime are pushing the story that harris has gone into hiding with 70 days until the election. In fact, she is back on the campaign trail tomorrow, but she still hasnt given the interview she promised. I talked to my team. I want us to get an Interview Scheduled before the end of the month. The end of the month meaning in a couple of days. I want to bring in nbc news political analyst chuck todd and former assistant to President Biden and cofounder of the senecca project. Good to see all of you. Lets start with the ongoing debate debate, chuck. Is something landing for either side . You know, clucking chickens or saying shes gone into hiding or is this just, you know, so much i dont know. Taunting inside baseball . Think its a Little Inside Baseball and a little working the refs. Look, i think there are put it this way, i know theres a debate inside republican circles about whether a debate is a good idea for donald trump. Its not that in theory generic republican nominee would want to debate the generic nominee for president and in theory that should be good for them, but considering the former president s past is sometimes his inability to bite his tongue and things like that, there are a lot of folks who think this debate could just be a disaster for him, that he wont know how to handle the moment and so that all of this what were seeing today is really creating exit ramps so they can get out of the debate with minimal political impact, you know, from people saying theyre ducking or whatever. You know, i think its still 50 50 whether well see any debates. Really . Ultimately, do i think trump will want to debate and will overrule anyone who thinks its a bad idea, i do, so well probably get one, but me guess is just one. Id love to see three, but i think thats not where were headed. Tira, trump seems to believe that muting the mikes helped him in the last debate. I wonder, though, can you extrapolate anything from a performance against a clearly struggling joe biden to what hell get from Kamala Harris . What do you make of the very small of the debate which is to mike or not to mike . I think donald trump is scared to death to debate Kamala Harris and so is his campaign. To chucks point, they know that Kamala Harris is a better debater than donald trump, and theyre worried because shes a prosecutor, and donald trump has never really fully been cross examined in front of the American People. He didnt take the stand in his criminal trials. He is ill prepared to be challenged by not only a woman, but a woman of color. So if i were his campaign sure, id be nervous about having donald trump on the stage next to a younger, smarter, more Skilled Debater and speaker than my candidate. Hes the old one in the race now, but theres nothing they can do about that visual. It is what it is and the American People will see that contrast and the binary choice. The idea that we may or may not see one, i think that we will. I dont think Donald Trumps ego will allow him to let those taunts go by. I think its interesting that the Harris Campaign is going about it this way, but its smart politics. They know that this gets under Donald Trumps skin and when hes irritated he makes more mistakes. So well see what happens. I think that she is ultimately, shes the one thats in a much stronger position here than donald trump is concerning this debate, and its unraveling him. He just cannot seem to land a punch on her and it shows in his response thus far. Kamala harris has been doing debate prep, we know that, right . But donald trump has a completely different strategy, we think. Heres what he says. President trump how are you specifically preparing for the debate. Im not, really. Im not spending a lot of time on it. I think my whole time ive been preparing for a debate. You cant Cram Knowledge into your head, 30 years of knowledge in one week. So, megan, i take from that he knows everything that he needs to know, and its pretty much the same playbook that he used in his previous campaigns. Is this in some ways the bestcase scenario for his campaign . Let trump be trump. He said he didnt prepare for the last one and he prepared to be more disciplined and he lied twice a minute and he doesnt have credibility in his preparation or the substance of his debating, but i do think theyll let him, trump be trump because thats what hell do and he doesnt know how to handle the Vice President. He doesnt know how to respond to her so it will just unravel and hell do what he does best in creating the discon. Or, oh, that wasnt me and all of the elections and hes creating doubt in peoples minds, so if he doesnt or people say it doesnt land, and the moderators werent going to be fair to him and it continues to build on his continued narrative. So there is a little bit of a confusion, if we want to call it that, chuck. On one hand he says im not spending a lot of time prepping for this debate, and Tulsi Gabbard, who by the way, just endorsed him is helping him in informal debate prep. She has been on the debate stage and challenged harris there before. Im going to play that little clip. Senator harris said shes proud of her record as a prosecutor and that shell be a prosecutor president , but im deeply concerned about this record. There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1500 people in jail for Marijuana Violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana. You owe them an apology. So she does know what it is to go up against Kamala Harris, chuck. Is there a role that you see that she can play here and is there a role for anyone to play significantly in Donald Trumps debate prep . Chris, in theory, sure. How to debate a woman versus a man, its different, but he might be better off getting help from mike pence, but mike pence has no interest in helping him because who debate Kamala Harris oneonone . I think these Group Debates tell you nothing. A oneonone debate is one thing and that, i think, is something that you can learn from someone that participated in a oneonone debate and the tenperson debates and all of those are competitions, right . As someone who moderated a couple of them. Its frustrating that thats what theyve become and when you have that many people on stage thats what theyve become and you cant sit here and say Tulsi Gabbard knows how to go after Kamala Harris. I dont think donald trump wants to say that Kamala Harris was too tough of a prosecutor in san francisco. Thats the last thing hes trying to get across, so im not, you know, but i dont get i dont even know what Tulsi Gabbards politics are anymore and if they somehow aligned with trump other than being antidemocratic establishment. Yeah, and megan, theres a lot of reporting about her debate prep, but also about the fact that shes using some of this time when shes not going out and doing rallies to put together a media strategy. She said and you heard this that she would have an Interview Schedule next month. Thats two days away . Does she need to do. Its pot fodder im not sure a lot of people will take t